Securifi: Securifi Almond Guard DIY Home Security System: A Beta-Testing Report

Securifi's products have been covered before on AnandTech. They were the first consumer networking equipment vendor to successfully integrate a working IoT hub in a Wi-Fi router. By integrating ZigBee and Z-Wave support into their touchscreen routers, they managed to open up their addressable market and go up against more established players in the space. Today, Securifi is making public their plans to build upon their IoT platform. The Almond Guard, a DIY home security system, is being launched via a crowdfunding campaign. Starting with the Almond 3 platform, Securifi has added home security system features to both the hardware and software. An optional professional monitoring service will also be made available for $10/mo. Over the last couple of months, I have been beta-testing one of the early Almond Guard units with alpha firmware and an alpha app. They were linked to a cloud server configured for evaluation purposes. In this piece, I will provide some thoughts on why home security is the killer app for consumer IoT before going into the details of the Almond Guard and my experience with it. A brief discussion of the competitive landscape for the product precedes the summary section. Background Home Security : A Market Ripe for Consumer IoT to Disrupt Almond Guard : The Hardware Almond Guard : Software Features Almond Guard : App & Cloud Back-end Competitive Landscape Miscellaneous Aspects and Concluding Remarks Background A couple of years ago, consumer IoT was heralded as the next big thing in the tech space. Unfortunately, it has not lived up to expectations. Industrial IoT, on the other hand, has made sure that the companies investing in it have some returns to show. However, consumer IoT / smart home devices is our focus in this article. ZigBee, Z-Wave, and Bluetooth have emerged as the connectivity options in this area. Low-power Wi-Fi also has a strong presence. Most smart home devices come with a hub to bridge the communication network with an IP network. It is evident that integrating the radios into a router and avoiding the hub makes for a more unified solution. Securifi was the first vendor to bring such a product to the market. This integration has slowly started spreading to products from other manufacturers also. For example, Google's OnHub router has a 802.15.4 radio, but the firmware does not enable it. ASRock recently started supporting ZigBee peripherals with their X10 IoT router. Z-Wave has a wide install base, and, to our knowledge, the Securifi Almond routers are the only ones supporting both ZigBee and Z-Wave. Consumer IoT has not taken off as planned because of the fragmented ecosystem. Each vendor wants the user to use their own app and cloud backend. Recent efforts such as Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa have a partial solution for this problem. Despite being forced to have some sort of integration with the above services, smart device vendors still opt to make most of their products entirely cloud-reliant. Cloud infrastructure needs maintenance. Hardware sales alone are not enough in the long run. The vendors have therefore been forced to partner with larger companies or turn to subscription-based 'smart home as a service' revenue model. The average consumer does not see much value in paying monthly fees to each IoT device vendor. The 'smart home as a service' (SHaaS) model works in the general case only when tangible benefit is provided to the end user. Incumbent players who receive recurring revenue from the average household are ISPs and TV service providers (such as Comcast, and AT&T in the US), and home security / alarm service providers (such as ADT, Frontpoint Security, Livewatch Security etc.). Essentially, SHaaS has to be an add-on to such services. ISPs and TV service providers are harder to disrupt because of the capital expenditure involved in the consumer premises. This has allowed incumbents like Xfinity (with Xfinity Home) to make significant inroads with this approach. On the other side, ADT and other similar security / alarm service providers have also been making a killing in the market by adding home automation / smart home functionality as an expensive add-on to their offerings (with the package rates going up as more sensors are monitored). However, the expensive nature of this value addition has prevented smart home technology from becoming popular through this market segment. [Back to Index] Home Security : A Market Ripe for Consumer IoT to Disrupt Traditional home security service vendors have kept the cost of adding / extending smart home functionality high. This has led to customers waiting for credible cheaper alternatives to emerge. Consumer IoT / smart home vendors, on the other hand, have supported most of the sensors and equipments used by home alarm / security vendors. Most of them have a cloud backend also. However, they have not had much traction in obtaining recurring revenue from their user base. Some IP camera vendors are notable exceptions - Nest, Ring, Canary, and a few others have managed to create a recurring revenue stream from a significant chunk of their user base. Given these two aspects, it is surprising that the move of IoT / smart home vendors to the home security alarm market has taken so much time. Over the last few month we have seen a number of these vendors introduce offerings in this space Nest with Nest Secure (optional professional monitoring) Ring with Ring Protect (now in limbo, as ADT sues them) (optional professional monitoring) Canary (self-monitoring) Samsung SmartThings (optional ADT professional monitoring) In addition, we also have traditional alarm services with a DIY twist such as SimpliSafe and Scout. Recently, Honeywell also launched their Smart Home Security product through a crowdfunding campaign. Cybersecurity has also become important. Ransomware and other threats due to botnets / insecure IoT devices have become causes of concern for connected households. Home security is not only related to physical security, but, increasingly on the online front also. Vendors who can target both offer more value in this market. Securifi is one of the very few vendors who can target both of these aspects. At CES earlier this year, they introduced a subscription-based internet security service. Other vendors in the space concentrated on the antivirus and antimalware aspects. At that time I wasn't sure whether the value offered was worth the subsription being charged. However, inclusion of home alarm motoring for a modest increase in premium would definitely deliver more value. Securifi is working towards that by introducing the Almond Guard. [Back to Index] Almond Guard : The Hardware The Almond Guard hardware builds upon the Almond 3 platform. All the features available in the Almond 3 are retained in the Almond Guard. As a recap, the Securifi Almond 3 is an AC1200-class router with a dual-core MIPS-based Mediatek SoC (MT7621AT) as the network processor. The MT7602E and the ME7612E fulfil the 2x2:2 bgn and an+ac radio duties. It also has a SiLabs EM357 ZigBee radio on the board. Z-Wave is supported via a USB dongle. The system allows operation in a mesh configuration with multiple other Almond 3 units. The mesh firmware is something built specifically by Securifi unlike the Qualcomm Wi-F SON platform used as a base by the leading vendors in the mesh space. The main differences between the Almond Guard (Almond 3S) and the Almond 3 in terms of hardware are: Different form factor to enable wall mounting similar to traditional alarm panels. The Almond 3S is closer to the Almond+ in appearance, rather than the Almond 3. Addition of a SIM slot to enable cellular backup (both for alarm data as well as traditional Internet communcation Addition of a battery to enable continued operation in case of a power failure All the updates essentially replicate the functionality required by home alarm panels. The picture of the updated PCB above shows the LTE module used for the cellular backup prominently. The Quectel LTE EC21 is a 10 Mbps / 5 Mbps LTE Cat 1 module optimized for M2M and IoT applications. Securifi indicated that the final version would sport a LTE module with specifications that would match the EC21 at the minimum. [Back to Index] Almond Guard : Software Features The firmware in the Almond Guard has the updates necessary for the operation as a home alarm system. On the touchscreen, we have the shortcuts for arming - typical of traditional alarm systems. The other features are similar to that of the standard Almond 3 - the device can be configured in router, range extender, or access point mode. It can act as a home alarm system in any of those modes. Gallery: Securifi Almond 3S The 4G settings can also be configured via the touchscreen interface (assuming that the SIM slot is populated with a valid card). The web interface is very basic (even for the Almond 3). Securifi expects most of the management to be done using the mobile app. Gallery: Securifi Almond 3S During our beta testing period, the web UI didn't have any particular enhancements for the home security system aspect. Given that the whole market has moved towards a mobile-first approach, we weren't surprised that the bulk of the efforts were being put towards honing the Almond app. [Back to Index] Almond Guard : App & Cloud Back-end The Almond app has been redesigned to accommodate usage as a home alarm monitoring app. The redesigned home screen looks similar to one of the four screenshots below Note that the mobile app can connect to the Almond Guard via the local network or through Securifi's cloud servers. In the local connection mode, the system can be set to Home and Away. Arming and disarming the system is available only in the cloud connection mode. This makes sense given that the system can inform the monitoring services only if it can connect to the cloud servers. The cloud connection mode also enables users to sign up for the Internet Secu